


Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

by readbetweenthelions



Category: Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, Mild Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 04:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readbetweenthelions/pseuds/readbetweenthelions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their relationship happens so fast Bruce isn’t even sure it’s real, and Peter’s commitment spooks him a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

**Author's Note:**

> Alliterative Boyfriends for Bonnie and Heather. It’s really more of a ficlet, so sorry it isn’t longer. I hope it’s everything you wanted.
> 
> Basically it’s set in an AU where Peter is an assistant in Bruce’s lab. Inspired a little by _Should I Stay Or Should I Go_ by the Clash (as per request from Heather), by _A Diamond and A Tether_ by Death Cab for Cutie and by _Blood Bank_ by Bon Iver (as per my inability to get either song out of my head.)

Bruce doesn’t know why he does it. He’s certainly too old for it. But Peter reminds him of someone, someone from a long time ago who he liked enough to save their life, and now Bruce has the Hulk.

Peter really _does_ remind Bruce of Rick Jones, when both Rick and Bruce were younger. Peter and Rick have those same bright eyes, the mingling curiosity of both youth and science. They have those sloping shoulders and gangly limbs of boys who are so close to becoming men they can taste it on their tongues, but they aren’t quite there yet. It’s something in the glint of glasses as Peter bends over journals and studies test tubes and readouts. It’s there, in the science questions Peter asks when they’re in the lab and the personal questions he asks when they’re not.

Peter adores Bruce, and Bruce adores Peter. It all started that first day, when Peter walked into the lab. The new assistant, brimming with excitement, that hair of his sticking up and bouncing a little as he strode up to Bruce and shook his hand, practically vibrating with eagerness. Bruce thinks he fell harder and faster than even Peter, so fast it made the speed of light look like a joke.

Yet Bruce panics when Peter actually says it, out loud. Bruce hears Peter’s voice resonating in his head, the words bouncing around so much that they become gibberish, they become white noise

_I love you._

It’s a small phrase, but it’s powerful. It alters everything. Nothing is the way it was before, and it’s because Bruce cannot bring himself to say it back. He might love him, he could love him, he does love him, but there’s something bizarrely final about it. It means Peter can’t escape, and Peter should always be able to escape. Everyone in Bruce’s life should be able to escape, for their own good.

Bruce should not do this. Bruce is much too old, much too volatile, much too damaged and much too dangerous for Peter. Peter, who is so young, a child really, but who has already seen too much of the world. Bruce is not right for Peter. Peter should date someone his own age,

But Bruce, selfishly, doesn’t want it to end. He wants the moments where Peter loops his arms around Bruce’s neck and kisses him tenderly with all that youthful energy begging to bubble to the surface, the moments where Peter taps and bumps and touches Bruce subconsciously, the moments where Peter says something sweet and affectionate and Bruce can only smile… Bruce doesn’t want those moments to end.

They ought to. Peter should be off somewhere, flirting with girls and boys who can match him for everything. But Peter doesn’t want any of those things. He’s made it stupidly, abundantly clear how much he wants Bruce instead of those things. He wants Bruce’s graying curls, he wants Bruce’s tensed-up muscles, he wants Bruce who chews the inside of his lip while he thinks and whose hands are strong and capable even when he’s nervous and who is actually one of the most dangerous people on the planet.

Bruce opens his eyes and looks at the slumbering Peter, who lays sprawled out on his back in the bed they share. Peter is _there_. Peter is always so irrevocably and unbelievably _there_ and he’s in every single moment, filling up a room with all that energy and wit and it astonishes Bruce that someone can even be so amazing. Even his soft snores are endearing.

The moment doesn’t last long. With a monstrous snore, Peter jolts awake. “Mmf,” he says, grabbing his pillow and burying his face in it.

“Peter?” Bruce says quietly.

“Hmm?” Peter says, voice muffled by the feathers and fabric.

Bruce shouldn’t do this. But he will anyway.

“I love you, too.”

Peter lowers the pillow and peers at him over the edge of it, his eyes shining and alert even so soon after waking. Peter scoots himself across the bed, abandoning the pillow, and presses himself against Bruce with every possible inch of them touching, and he kisses Bruce slow and sleepy and sweet, and Bruce is still worried about what this will mean, but for right now he’s okay with pretending everything will be fine.


End file.
